Democratic operative eyes future

Is there anything Stephen J. Kerrigan would do differently in a campaign for lieutenant governor next year?

“I would win this one,” the Lancaster native said with a laugh, referring to an unsuccessful bid for state representative in 2008.

Mr. Kerrigan, 41, a veteran Democratic operative who is currently the chief executive officer of the 2013 Presidential Inaugural Committee, said Friday he no longer is content to be in the background and is planning to run for statewide office next year.

He would not say for sure if it would be for the seat now held by Lt. Gov. Timothy P. Murray.

However, when asked during an interview at the Old Timer restaurant in Clinton what other office he would consider, he said his “only focus” is the lieutenant governor’s post.

“It’s something I’m thinking a lot about. I have been asking and consulting friends and colleagues and have received nothing but positive feedback,” he said. “I have spent my entire career in public service, and I want to try to make a difference. It’s not just a slogan — I want to focus on our government and the future of the state. Everyone feels the same way, and we need experienced leaders to make a difference, move past the partisan bickering and resolve issues.”

Mr. Murray, a Worcester Democrat, has indicated he will run for Gov. Deval L. Patrick’s seat next year. In state primary elections, candidates for governor and lieutenant governor can run separately, but typically team up for the general election in November.

Mr. Kerrigan said while he has great respect for Mr. Murray, he would run his own campaign in the primary and not tie himself to a gubernatorial candidate

Mr. Kerrigan, who lives on Neck Road, has 24 years of political and experience, beginning in 1989 as an aide to the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy. He still wears a blue wristband with the word “Tedstrong” as testimony to his mentor’s fighting spirit during a battle with brain cancer that eventually killed the senator.

Besides Mr. Kerrigan’s current CEO position with the inaugural committee, he was CEO of last year’s well-received Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., and is president of the Massachusetts Military Heroes Fund, a nonprofit organization. It provides support to the families of military personnel with ties to Massachusetts who have died as a result of active duty service since the 9-11 terrorist attacks.

Mr. Kerrigan was the youngest elected official in Lancaster when he won a seat on the Finance Committee at age 26. He then won a three-year town selectmen’s seat. He was later Mr. Kennedy’s political director until 2003, when he left for a position as chief of staff for the 2004 Democratic Convention in Boston. After that, Mr. Kerrigan was chief of staff for then-Attorney General Thomas F. Reilly, until 2007.

He ran for the state representative seat in the 12th Worcester District in 2008 and lost to Clinton Democrat Harold P. Naughton Jr., who has held the seat since the mid-1990s.

Mr. Kerrigan, while comparing some state issues to those he faced in Lancaster, said frustration about stalled solutions and finger-pointing is at a tipping point to the public.

He said he would draw on solutions he learned in his previous posts.

“I saw it in the attorney general’s office, with the senator, and with the nonprofit (Massachusetts Military Heroes Fund.) You need a mixed collection of minds trying to resolve problems and put the issue first,” Mr. Kerrigan said.

“No one seems to understand the meaning of civic and civil, and everything is so divisive now. We need to learn how to talk through them,” he said. “The people of Massachusetts deserve better, and I am done sitting on the sidelines.”